Testbed for wood and fibre properties

In the laboratory, wood and fibre properties are measured on samples from trees and products. Examples of properties that are measured are the density of the wood, the stiffness of the wood and the microfibril angle, as well as the dimensions and wall thickness of the fibres. For these properties, data for both mean values as well as distributions and variations are produced. In addition, wood and wood-based materials are measured with imaging NIR spectroscopy to estimate the chemistry of the material. Other possible applications based on NIR are detection of defects in logs and sawn goods, such as rot.

Important instruments are:

• SilviScan (1 of 3 systems in the world).

• Fiber and particle meters (FiberTester and ImageStream).

• Hyperspectral imaging NIR.

The laboratory is mainly used for wood-related research, but the equipment for imaging NIR has much broader applications for analysis of chemical and other variations over surfaces of different materials, see link at the bottom of this page.

Measurement data from the laboratory are used in several types of projects. An example is the development of models for predicting wood and fiber properties in trees and logs. In other projects, the effect of the fundamental fiber properties on the pulp and sheets of paper has been studied. Data from the instruments have also been used in several plant breeding projects where the goals are, among other things, to interpret the effect of genetics on wood and fiber properties, including wood chemistry.